The final leg of the 'Gulf Swing' gets underway on Thursday with the Dubai Desert Classic. Skysports.com picks six players to watch.
Watch all four rounds of the Dubai Desert Classic on Sky Sports. Live coverage begins on Thursday at 6am on SS2 and HD2
The European Tour moves on for this week's third and final instalment of the Middle East trilogy.
After tournaments in Abu Dhabi and Qatar, the players arrive in Dubai for the Desert Classic at Emirates Golf Club.
First staged 20 years ago, the Dubai Desert Classic is the oldest of the Tour's Middle East events, with all but two of its previous tournaments staged at this week's venue.
The Karl Litten-designed course is 21 years old. Water comes into play on 10 holes, the greens are fairly flat and the slightly undulating fairways weave their way among the sand dunes.
Scoring at the Emirates is usually low.
So who's likely to be in contention this week?
Ernie Els: Rarely misses a trip to Dubai and it's easy to see why the Desert Classic has become one of the South African's favourite tournaments. The Big Easy has not finished outside the top-three in any of his last seven visits to the Emirates and, since 2002, his results have been: Won-2nd-3 rd-Won-2nd-2nd-3rd. His stroke average for these 28 rounds is a remarkable 67.96 and he also won here back in 1994.
Ross Fisher: The highly-rated Englishman has posted top-10 finishes in both of his previous starts at the Emirates.
Sergio Garcia: Will be keen to build on his excellent start to the European Tour season which currently sees him on top of the Race to Dubai standings. Before heading off to play on the PGA Tour in the States, the 29-year-old Spaniard will want to add a few more Euros to his current total.
Martin Kaymer: The 2007 Rookie of the Year has already shown himself to be an excellent Middle East performer. Last year's Abu Dhabi champion finished in a tie-for-second in the same tournament two weeks ago. The young German was also second on his Emirates' debut in 2008.
Louis Oosthuizen: Third last year, the South African impressed everyone with his superb final round of 64 in Abu Dhabi recently which left him one shot behind eventual winner Paul Casey. He also finished runner-up in Qatar on Sunday, which means he is currently in the form of his life.
Lee Westwood: Played well for 54 holes in Qatar before slipping down the leaderboard on Sunday with a closing 74.
